The Briefing: Quantum Computing Goes Mainstream While AI's Bills Come Due
Issue #2025.49 / December 1, 2025
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Something unusual happened on November 28: an established asset manager launched a fund dedicated to quantum computing stocks. Not a niche vehicle for crypto bros or tech evangelists, but an actual ETF trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange with a tidy 0.45% expense ratio. If that sounds mundane, consider what it signals about where we are in the technology adoption curve.
WisdomTree’s quantum computing fund (ticker: WQTM) arrives at a moment when quantum stocks have delivered returns that would make even the most caffeinated day trader nervous. Pure-play companies like IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantum Computing Inc. have posted gains ranging from 90% to 1,860% over the past year. That’s not a typo. One company saw an eighteen-fold increase.
The timing isn’t accidental. Google’s October announcement of its Quantum Echoes algorithm, running 13,000 times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputers on its Willow chip, triggered the kind of market enthusiasm usually reserved for surprise Fed rate cuts. The company claims its 105-qubit processor achieved below-threshold quantum error correction, a milestone scientists have chased for nearly three decades.
But here’s where things get interesting, and slightly absurd. Google’s benchmark of choice - random circuit sampling - is essentially asking a quantum computer to solve a problem designed specifically to be hard for classical computers. It’s a bit like designing an obstacle course where only one contestant has legs. Critics note that while Google’s error suppression scales exponentially with qubit count, no large-scale quantum algorithms or commercial applications have actually run on Willow yet. The chip’s logical error rates hover around 0.14% per cycle, which remains orders of magnitude above the 10⁻⁶ levels believed necessary for meaningful, large-scale quantum work.
Still, WisdomTree’s Global Head of Research wasn’t exaggerating when he told investors that quantum computing is “crossing the threshold from theory to commercial reality.” The global quantum computing market reached $1.8-3.5 billion (€1.6-3.0 billion) in 2025, with McKinsey projecting the broader quantum technology sector could hit $97 billion (€84 billion) in annual revenue by 2035.
The Infrastructure Reality Check
While quantum computing investors count their paper gains, a different story is unfolding in the decidedly non-quantum world of AI infrastructure. Since September, four leading tech giants - Alphabet, Meta, Oracle, and Amazon - have issued nearly $90 billion (€78 billion) in bonds, with total 2025 issuance expected to top $120 billion (€104 billion). That’s more than four times the historical average of $28 billion.
The reason? Artificial intelligence demands are consuming capital at a pace that makes even these cash-rich giants uncomfortable. While they maintain strong balance sheets and low leverage for now, credit markets are beginning to ask uncomfortable questions about what happens if AI infrastructure investments don’t deliver expected returns.
SoftBank learned this lesson the hard way this week. The Japanese conglomerate’s shares plunged 11% on Tuesday following a 10.9% drop the previous Friday, erasing over ¥16 trillion ($102 billion / €88 billion) in market value since late October. Investors grew nervous about SoftBank’s massive bet on OpenAI amid mounting competition and questions about the ChatGPT maker’s path to profitability. The stock recovered 5.65% Wednesday, but the damage to confidence was done.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT crossed 800 million weekly users - roughly 10% of the world’s adult population - processing over 2.5 billion messages per day. That’s an extraordinary scale. It’s also an extraordinary cost. OpenAI’s infrastructure expenses could run $700,000 daily, according to semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis. The company’s $10 billion annual recurring revenue sounds impressive until you consider the computing costs, talent expenses, and the fact that most of those 800 million users pay nothing.
This creates a peculiar dynamic: quantum computing companies trade at valuations reflecting distant future profits while AI infrastructure companies burn through capital pursuing near-term dominance in a market whose economics remain stubbornly unclear.
The One Medical Device That Matters More Than You Think
In a week dominated by computational fireworks, the most substantive breakthrough came from a decidedly unsexy corner of healthcare technology. Royal Philips introduced BlueSeal Horizon at the Radiological Society of North America conference in Chicago on November 30, the industry’s first helium-free 3.0T MRI system.
Before your eyes glaze over, understand what this means. Conventional MRI machines require nearly 2,000 liters of liquid helium to operate. Philips’ new system contains just seven liters, fully sealed. Healthcare accounts for approximately 32% of global helium consumption, and the world is facing severe helium shortages that threaten MRI operations worldwide.
Helium isn’t just expensive, it’s irreplaceable. Once released into the atmosphere, it escapes Earth’s gravity and floats off into space forever. The element forms through radioactive decay of uranium and thorium deep underground, making it a truly finite resource on human timescales. When helium prices spike or supplies constrict, hospitals face impossible choices about which imaging procedures to prioritize.
BlueSeal Horizon addresses this vulnerability while delivering clinical improvements: it reconstructs 145 images per second (twice as fast as previous models), enables up to 270 exams daily in high-volume settings, reduces radiation dose by up to 80% in reference body protocols, and cuts energy consumption by as much as 45%.
The system pairs the sealed magnet with next-generation AI capabilities designed to eliminate the traditional trade-off between imaging speed and precision. For healthcare systems already stretched thin, particularly in regions with limited access to medical imaging, this combination of sustainability and performance could reshape diagnostic capacity globally.
It’s the kind of innovation that won’t generate memes or stock market hysteria but will quietly improve millions of lives. Sometimes that’s exactly what matters.
In Other News
Tesla’s European problem deepened as November sales plunged 58% in France and 49% in Denmark compared to a year earlier, with registrations falling to just 1,593 vehicles in France and 534 in Denmark. The Model Y saw registrations plummet 74% in Denmark, though the company is launching budget Model 3 and Y variants in Europe this month, with the Model 3 Standard priced at €36,990 ($42,890) in the Netherlands. Whether lower prices can overcome consumer backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s political activities remains an open question.
Ryanair abandoned its Prime membership after an eight-month trial that attracted 55,000 members but lost money. The program generated €4.4 million ($5.1 million) in subscription fees but distributed more than €6 million ($7.0 million) in fare discounts, resulting in a net loss that prompted Europe’s largest budget airline to kill the initiative. The service, launched in March for €79 ($92) annually, offered benefits including free reserved seating on up to 12 flights per year and monthly exclusive fare sales.
Grammy-nominated singer Teddy Swims faced backlash after revealing he uses AI tools in his songwriting process, reigniting tensions over AI’s role in music. The “Lose Control” singer described how his producers use AI to modify lyrics remotely and reimagine songs across different genres without traditional studio work. The controversy intensified when Breaking Rust, an entirely AI-generated country artist, topped Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart with “Walk My Walk,” a track later revealed to be built on the vocal style of real artist Blanco Brown without his knowledge.
Airbus completed software fixes on the vast majority of approximately 6,000 A320-family aircraft affected by an emergency recall, with fewer than 100 planes still requiring modifications as of this week. The swift resolution averted widespread travel disruption following what industry sources described as the broadest emergency recall in the company’s 55-year history. TAP Air Portugal updated 41 A320 aircraft without canceling a single flight, highlighting strong coordination between maintenance teams and operations control.
SoftBank completed its $6.5 billion acquisition of semiconductor design company Ampere Computing, adding a strategic chip design asset to the Japanese conglomerate’s expanding AI infrastructure portfolio. The deal, first announced in March, marks another major investment by billionaire founder Masayoshi Son in his pursuit of artificial superintelligence, though timing it alongside the company’s recent stock troubles raises questions about portfolio balance.
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